September 25, 2015

“Gilbert offers an empathetic and inspiring guide to mustering the courage to live a creative life. . . . [she] peppers sound advice with personal triumphs and failures. Nearly anyone who picks up this self-help manual should finish it feeling inspired, even if only to dream of a life without limits.” —Publishers Weekly

“Gilbert serves as an enthusiastic coach for readers who want more out of life. Highly recommended.” — Library Journal

Elizabeth Gilbert has had an extraordinary journey: first an award-winning magazine journalist, she began her career writing for Harper’s Bazaar, Spin, The New York Times Magazine and GQ. She was a three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, and an article she wrote in GQ about her experiences bartending became the basis for the movie Coyote Ugly. She published several books before Eat Pray Love, including a short story collection Pilgrims, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award and a book that moved Annie Proulx to call her “a young writer of incandescent talent”; Stern Men, a New York Times Notable Book; and The Last American Man, which was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Eat Pray Lovelaunched Gilbert into another stratosphere altogether, making her one of the most iconic and beloved writers of our time. Now with more than 10 million copies sold worldwide, Eat Pray Lovehas been translated into over 30 languages and made into a feature film, and Time named Gilbert one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

While Eat Pray Lovewas Gilbert’s personal memoir, many readers took it as stimulus to make changes, large and small, in their own lives. In the decade since Eat Pray Lovewas published, people worldwide have sought further advice from Gilbert on how to lead a bold and creative life. Gilbert’s TED talk about creativity has nearly 10 million views, making it one of the most viewed TED talks of all time, and this past fall Gilbert went on tour with Oprah, speaking to over 100,000 people along the way.

Out of this decade of investigating the source of creativity and courage in her own life, Gilbert has now written a transformative nonfiction treatise on creativity: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (Riverhead Books, September 22, 2015). In Big Magic, Gilbert digs deep into her own generative process to explain where inspiration comes from, how ideas form and grow, and how to overcome the fears and suffering that inevitably arise when we push at boundaries and take a leap into the unknown. With all the humor, big-heartedness, wild vulnerability, and wisdom that have already won Gilbert millions of devoted fans, she delivers a vibrant and inspirational book, one sure to be eagerly received and cherished this fall–both by the legions of Gilbert’s existing fans and followers, as well as by new readers, who will have the distinct joy of discovering Gilbert’s writing and warmth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ELIZABETH GILBERT is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Loveand several other internationally bestselling books. Gilbert has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her latest novel, The Signature of All Things, was named a Best Book of 2013 by The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker.

About Blyth Meier

Blyth Meier joined us to lead our marketing department in 2015 after doing that work for the Milwaukee Film Festival for the previous five years. While she made good use her filmmaking degree at that job, here she returns to her first love—books. As an undergraduate English major at the University of North Dakota, Blyth’s favorite time of year was the annual Writers Conference, which brought many of her soon-to-be favorite authors to the remote Northern Prairie: Peter Matthiessen, August Wilson, Toi Derricotte, Mark Doty, Natasha Trethewey, and Terry Tempest Williams. Blyth lives in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee, where she gardens, cooks, takes photographs, makes films, and participates in a yearly 24-hour bike race. At 800-CEO-READ, she runs our social media accounts, writes for In the Books, and is the keeper of all our marketing spreadsheets.

"A creative life is an amplified life. It's a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself." - Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic